Category: Star Wars

In this update I am covering the work I have done to the Main Entrance Junction and the Cargo Bays since the last update I wrote. There are only 15 snapshots to look at this time because there just wasn’t much detail to show because the majority of the work was already done.

First thing I did was color in all of the parts in the Main Entrance Junction to match the color choices in the corridor sections of the ship. I thought about replacing the wall panels and dividers with the utility versions but I decided to leave it as it was because it isn’t just a work area of the ship, it’s the first thing passengers see when they board the ship when the ship is landed. Continue reading

At the end of the last update I said I would start finishing the corridor sections. I started to do that but then I got distracted and I began working to complete Landing Bay instead.

That distraction turned out to be a good thing because the Landing Bay is the largest single area of the ship. Most of the work was already done in the Landing Bay; it mostly needed its components colored in and for the ceiling detail to be added. I ended up doing a lot more than that and now it would be ready for starfighters and a certain familiar freighter to inhabit it. In its current configuration, it doesn’t accommodate as many starfighters as I would have liked but perhaps when the ship is complete I may work on different configurations for different applications of use. Continue reading

In this update I will cover the work done on the Helm Section of the ship so far. The majority of the work was done on the pilot stations including the computer consoles, flight controls and the pilot seats. It might not seem like much but the work done here will be reflected in nearly all future computer consoles and work stations on the ship.

I am looking to make a unified design across the ship. Because the ship is intended to be new and in unused condition, there won’t be a mismatch of parts from different ships and manufacturers like the heavily worn and used ships like the Millennium Falcon or the Tantive IV.

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That’s it, I’ve done it again by failing to write an update for a long time! Because of this I will be splitting the progress of the ship into two updates. In this update I will go over the progress of the Bridge interior and the next one to follow will be on the Helm.

It was about time that I started to work on the interior of the ship for a while. I decided on working on the Bridge which is one of the largest sections of the ship and possible the most highly detailed one.

I had done some work on the Bridge interior before but it mostly entailed the split level floor and putting in basic wall panels. The wall panel work, in the end, was pointless as now it has been completely redone. Continue reading

This is a short update because it involves just one big change: the escape pods.

As I mentioned before, the escape pods were starting to bug me and the reason is that the entry doors are just too big to be swung open into the inside of the ship. Because the doors took up so much space when opened, I had to compromise the design of the escape pod launch rooms to accommodate them.

I wanted the escape pods to match those on the Tantive IV and at the same time match the general design of the escape pod access ports inside the ship. That was just not possible to do with the design of the escape pods seen in the movie. To get the launch rooms designed to my liking I decided to compromise on the design of the escape pods themselves.

This time I managed to do exactly what I planned on doing. I changed the main weapon a bit; I added more details to the hull, changed the engine layout and created more weapons

[notice]I am trying out a new way to display the images in these updates. Now when you click on a thumbnail (when reading on JediCharles.com) a larger version will pop up and you then have the option to cycle through all the images contained in the update gallery. This will eliminate the need for the flash based gallery that I have been including in the blog posts.[/notice] Continue reading

After working on the Bridge section for a while I felt the need to work on other parts of the ship.

This project may seem scatterbrain, but that is because it is. To prevent boredom I have to move on to something else to keep my creativity going. Typically those who design stuff like this sketch it out on paper first and make several revisions before they even start creating a prototype model let alone the final 3D model or a physical model. That method probably makes the most sense but in my case I am completely digital and it’s out of necessity.

I started off creating a general layout of the ship’s interior in Photoshop but after that I went straight to modeling. I only had a general idea of what the exterior design would be. Pencil sketches of my ideas would really help but instead I let my ideas evolve as I model. Some ideas just don’t work and that is evident in the design of the main weapon as you will see. Continue reading

Once again I did a lot of work on the ship without writing one of these updates so there will be 2 updates. In this update I am focusing on the designing of the front entrance of the ship, the front landing gear and the main docking rings. In the next update I will be covering the rear landing gear, the buildup of the primary weapon and a few exterior details.

In order to accommodate a front entrance for the ship I added on to bottom of the bridge section giving the ship a “big chin”. The additional depth of the bridge section allowed me to extend the turbolift shaft to the new entrance. In addition to being the front entrance to the ship, the new bottom of the bridge serves as the front landing gear. Continue reading

The docking ports on my 210CR starship have bothered me since the day I modeled them because it was hard to make heads or tails out of the images of the Millennium Falcon’s docking ports that I could find at the time. The main problem is that nobody seems to know how they work and without a better photo it’s impossible to tell. But since I modeled the docking ports I was able to get a great close up when I went to the Star Wars Exhibit last May.

Still, even with the close up I wasn’t sure how they worked but I was able to make out all of the details on the model. As I about to model the docking ports on my new starship project and it made me do some more research on the web to finally figure out how they work on the Falcon. Somebody came up with the theory that there are 6 small doors that open inwards with the center section attached to the top one. Finally it seemed to make sense. The inner doors are supposed to open inwards as well but the detail on the model simply doesn’t allow them to.

So, now that I had an idea about how they worked, I decided to completely redo the docking ports on the 210CR. To make them function I had to use a little artistic license and decided what certain parts would do. I made the parts that surround the doors a locking system that would hold the doors shut magnetically. Magnetism should be enough because the air pressure behind the doors would pretty much keep them shut in the vacuum of space.

The inner doors were the only parts that opened before but now, in contrast, they no longer open. Someday this will bug me and you will see another update like this one.

The new docking ports are now part of version 1.1 of the model and can be downloaded on the starship’s page.

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About JediCharles.com

I'm a Star Wars and SketchUp enthusiast living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). This blog serves as my personal posting ground for all things I create through my 3D modeling hobby combined with my love of Star Wars. Occasionally, topics will also include things relating to DMD and physical disability.